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tv   Washington Journal Jillian Berman Discusses Student Loan Forgiveness...  CSPAN  April 24, 2017 3:06pm-3:20pm EDT

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>> attorney general jeff sessions speaks today about workplace integrity and ethical standards at the annual ethics and compliance conference here in washington. the event includes discussion with former justice department officials from the clinton, george w. bush, and obama administrations. that should get under way in about 10 minutes. here onthat live c-span. until then, a look at a proposal that would link student debt to public service from today's "washington journal" and we will show you as much as we can until the event with the attorney general gets underway. your money segment on washington journal and this week we feature reporting done by jillian berman, who covers in part, the student loan industry and particularly issues concerning student loan forgiveness to those who work in the public sector.
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good morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: public service loan forgiveness. for those who may not be familiar, what is it? guest: a program signed into law by george w. bush in 2007 which allows borrowers in public service to say you work for the government or for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you are a teacher, things like that, to have loans forgiven after 10 years if they make payments for the entire 10 years. host: if they make the payments all the debt they have accumulated aside from that gets forgiven? guest: exactly. it is tax-free which is different from other programs. in other cases there is a tax consequence. host: who qualifies as far as what type of public service? guest: a little bit of controversy surrounding meant now. what's pretty clear is if you work for the government at any federal,ate, local,
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you qualify. if you work for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit you qualify. what is murkier is if you are a public servant working for a different kind of nonprofit, a 501(c) four or 501(c) six. it is being determined as to whether you fit into the program. host: why is that? guest: some of those other nonprofits, the different designations -- political activities like lobbying, sort of different goals than what the .raditional public servant there are people who work for those organizations who are doing what we might think of public service work. there is some discretion as to whether if you are a lawyer working for an organization that does some lobbying but your specific role is is a public defender almost, there's
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discretion as to whether you qualify. it would bepossible spelled out what would qualify as what public service? guest: that would be ideal. we have not had any forgiveness through the program yet three at it started in 2007. signed into law in 2007. nobody has paid -- has gone to the full 10 years of it. we have not seen what happens when you hit the button unforgiveness read ideally it would be spelled out. what is spelled out clearly is that government workers and 501(c)(3) workers qualify. as we get closer to the forgiveness point and people are trying to get the paperwork in order that is where we are seeing confusion. that is sort of being worked out as we speak. host: our guest is with us to talk about the public service and loan forgiveness and questions on whether that will happen or not. you want to ask her questions it
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is (202) 748-8001 four republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. for independents, (202) 748-8002 . is it specific to the trump administration or was this something that started happening in the obama administration? guest: this predates the trump administration. the aba, the american bar association, a membership organization for lawyers, filed a lawsuit alleging that some lawyers who have loans approved for forgiveness were later reneged upon. the government said your loans qualify, you will have them forgiven and 10 years if you keep going on this path and turned around and said, just kidding, that's not the case. of the lawsuith itself in the government's response came during the trump administration the aba had been
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discussing this with the obama administration toward the end of their tenure. they had been going back and forth for a long time on it. in this case the trump administration was continuing what had been going on under obama. host: could you give us a sense of the price tag if these loans were to be forgiven will would be the approximate cost of the taxpayer? guest: it's hard to say. definitely in the billions. according to the government accountability office there are about 4 million student loan borrowers -- estimated 4 million student loan borrowers who would qualify for this program. if you think about that, 4 million borrowers, the average student loan debt is about $35,000. a lot of people who use this program tend to be graduate students so that is higher. is higher. debt you can get a sense of the amount that could be forgiven. host: one of the stories includes a chart. a borrowers -- of borrowers
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registered for the ps f l only 0.01% have been in the program loaded to give forgiveness next year. guest: next year is the first time -- the end of this year is the first time we're going to see anybody eligible for forgiveness. anybodyy unlikely that will have -- will be able to claim at. that untilis recently not a lot of people knew about it. some people might have heard about it from their employer, maybe from the union but unless you were told about it by someone a lot of borrowers did not know the program existed even though they are working in the proper field. they may not have the right type of loan. the subprogram for borrowers with federal student loans but you have to have a certain federal student loan. what's known as a direct loan.
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the s fel under .rogram, you can consolidate those are a couple of the issues that borrowers might be facing. host: as far as the education department, what is it doing to assure, at least clarify, where people stand in this program? guest: nothing right now. some senators a few weeks ago wrote a letter to secretary put outking her to clearer guidance to streamline the application process. you're onat you know track for forgiveness as you submit a form called an player certification form. some information from you, from your employer but that is a paper process. the senators were asking her to digitize and which in 2017 seems like it might be time. far.hem silent so
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a few weeks ago the new york times did a column, the premise of which was all of these people are worried about the status of their loan forgiveness and the department of education is not returned our calls on this topic. host: first call is from bonnie. you're on with our guest. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: good morning. i was doing laundry so i missed the very first part. my daughter is a 911 operator in oregon. she is 40. she has had a student loan for her masters three for years now. i'm wondering about the details of how would she get this form and who would she submit it to. guest: you can get the form online. if you type in employment certification form and google that is a way to do it. if you go to student aid.gov
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that is a way to do it. you print out the form. she fills it out and you also have to take it to your employer. there's a portion they fill out and you send it -- you can submit it on student aid.gov or send it to your student loan servicer, which is the company that -- the company where she is paying her bills to. they handle it. host: the something like a 911 operator qualified generally for this type of relief? guest: that's a good question. i'm not super familiar with the mechanics of 911 operators. if it is through a police department, yes, that would. host: hamilton, ohio. this is alfred on our independent line. caller: i would like to know does the debt forgiveness you are talking about applied to military personnel, especially those disabled with high
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interest loans such as mortgages and such. what areas does that cover on the debt forgiveness? guest: if you are talking about if you have a disability is actually another route you can -- it is called a total and permanent disability discharge. that is another form you can find on student aid.gov. you submit that form. if you qualify you have loans forgiven right away and you don't have to go through this 10 year process of paying them back. host: there are some critics of this program. preston cuckoo wrote a column in this for forbes. he said in part, this is over welfare for the rich. people with graduate degrees are not the one to need help paying back the loans. why taxpayers should stay billions of dollars while leaving distressed borrowers on in the cold is a mystery to me.
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is that a fair criticism? guest: that is a criticism that has been leveled by conservative scholars. even the obama administration proposed cap on the program and $57,500. basically that would mean that is the mexico have forgiven. the reason for that cap, thinking is the program is utilized mostly by graduate students and undergraduates students use federal student loans. graduate students are able to borrow up to the cost of the program. borrowing forited graduate students and on the back and we allow unlimited forgiveness if they do work in a public service sector. that is something a lot of people say does not match. host: i asked about the two
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devos-- does -- but the -- betsy devise -- guest: on the campaign trail president trump i believe it was in ohio talked about allowing our worst to pay back their for at loans by paying -- about 12 years and having the remainder forgiven. it has been no movement on that. that was something he brought up on the campaign trail. host: let's hear from caroline in louisville, kentucky. democrats line. caller: i wanted to know what was available for social workers . i am a graduate student. -- from bush up until trump -- yes at times i have worked for the government, i
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have worked for agencies, domestic violence advocate for the police department. will i qualify for student forgiveness? guest: if your work has been for the government and for 501(c)(3)'s you probably will. you don't have to have the same employer over the full 10 years that would you do have to do is coupled together proof of employment from those different plane -- those different places. it does not have to be 10 consecutive years of work but ultimately you do have to make 10 years worth of student loan payments. before you receive forgiveness you have to make 120 pa

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